1. Field
The present invention relates to the field of electronic musical toys. More specifically, the present invention relates to the fields of toy electric guitars and sound synthesizers for generating guitar-like sounds.
2. Art Background
A number of electronic toy guitars have been taught in the prior art and include such examples as: A Guitar-Like Electronic Musical Instrument With Plural Manuals, U.S. Pat. No. 3,555,166; Guitars Or Like Stringed Musical Instruments, U.S. Pat. No. 3,443,018; Stringless Guitar-Like Electronic Musical Instrument, U.S. Pat. No. 3,340,343; Electronic Musical Instrument With String-Simulating Switches, U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,521; Stringless Electronic Musical Instrument, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 31,019; and Stringless Electronic Musical Instrument, U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,705. However, all of these toys require considerable skill from the player, which defeats their value as toys (as opposed to musical instrument or guitar emulators). In a toy it is desirable for the player to immediately be able to generate interesting sounds and music without having to acquire a high degree of skill. At the same time, however, it is important that the player be in control of the music, and not merely turning music on as in a player piano. Further, none of these toys has a true electric guitar-like sound.
Certain software programs, designed for use in personal computers, such as a program distributed under the "JAM SESSION" trademark by Broderbund Software, permit the simulation of a music studio and permit the end-to-end "splicing" combinations of short tracks of music together. However, these programs require expensive computers and do not provide the ease of use and "no-goof" capability that is required in an electronic musical toy.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an electronic stringless guitar toy that always is in key, never losses the beat, permits the smooth combinations of guitar "riffs" under real-time player control, and sounds like an electric guitar.